Reviews

Ducktails

Wish Hotel EP

Domino

Ducktails' new EP follows on the heels of its latest LP, The Flower Lane, released early in 2013 and the group's strongest effort yet. While The Flower Lane feels like a full-band effort, the six tracks on the Wish Hotel EP take head Ducktail Matt Mondanile back to the solo, bedroom-style recordings of early Ducktails offerings.

The five tracks here are more textured than the simple jangly vibe that made the group's early offerings so charming, with a similar sonic palate as The Flower Lane. The highlight is opener "Tie-Dye," which has a sleepy quality to it, with a synthesizer riff that pokes its head in periodically. Elsewhere, the extended guitar solo on the title track rambles on and on, while the instrumental "Naive Music" meanders along over a bed of synthesizers.

Where every track on The Flower Lane felt essential to the whole product, most of the material here feels like warmed-up leftovers—too much of the same thing over and over, without the variety from track to track that can be found on its predecessor. It's by no means a bad offering, just not as strong a follow-up as one might have hoped. (www.dominorecordco.us/artists/ducktails)